Sociologyprovides insight into how various social categories, such as social class, race, ethnicity, gender and age influences individual experiences and the operation of social institutions, including but not limited to, education, health, politics, law and order, and the economy. Sociology students, through research methods and design, are exposed to analytical skills that allow for the exploration of how various social categories influence individual and institutional behavior and how individual experiences in turn shape the existing societal social structure. Issues of interest include poverty, racial and gender inequalities, crime, health, education and economic inequalities and urban communities. At the global level, sociologists are interested in the study of migration, population growth, globalization and economic development.
Sociology offers two optional concentrations: Social Justice Track or Medical Sociology.
Majoring in sociology prepares students for graduate school and a wide variety of careers, such as social psychology, criminology or criminal justice, social research, social work, public administration, organizational research, business, education, market research, health services research, law, and community planning.
A sociology major and minor and a medical sociology minor are offered to students in the College of Arts and Sciences. The sociology program also supports the criminal justice and human relations majors.
Required Courses (33 credits)
ALL of the following courses:
SOCY 100 Introduction to SociologyIntroduces students to the science of sociology and prepares students for upper-level social science course work. Formerly SOC 100 Introduction to Sociology.
3 credits
General Education Curriculum: Knowledge and Inquiry Area
FLC Area V
Core Area II: Understanding the Self and SocietySSC 350 Interdisciplinary Research MethodsThis course introduces students to research methods used in a variety of social science and interdisciplinary studies. It is designed for undergraduate students in sociology, political science, international affairs, and other disciplines. Topics of emphasis include crafting research questions, hypothesis formation, quantitative and qualitative research techniques, data collection, and initial/basic data analysis. As part of the course, students will complete a number of mini-projects to practice these skills. (Formerly SSC 250.)SOCY 421 Sociological TheoryInvestigates the origin and development of classical sociological theory and how it is used in contemporary sociology. Formerly SOC 486 Sociological Theory.
3 credits
Prerequisites: SOCY 100.SOCY 499 Senior SeminarServes as a capstone course that explores contemporary sociological and criminological concepts through new research and theory in the discipline. Students will contribute to class discussion through written work and oral presentations. Formerly SOC 460 Senior Seminar.
3 credits
Prerequisites: Senior status in the major
ONE course in statistics:
MATH 110 Introduction to StatisticsThis course presents the basic principles of statistics with applications to the social sciences. Topics include descriptive statistics, graphical representations of data, normal probability distributions and the Central Limit Theorem, linear correlation and regression and probability theory. This course also offers an introduction to the use of statistical software. Formerly MAT 110 Introduction to Statistics.
3 credits
Prerequisites: MATH 102, MATH 108, MATH 109 or higher level mathematics course.SSC 255 Statistics for the Social SciencesStatistics for the Social Sciences introduces students to the use of social science data for identifying, explaining, and interpreting patterns of human behavior and interactions. Students will be introduced to the techniques social scientists use to summarize data used in census and other publicly available social science data, for example the General Social Survey (GSS). Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, numerically and graphically describing distributions, the normal curve, relationships between continuous and categorical variables, statistical inference, hypothesis testing and bivariate linear and multiple linear regression. The objective of the course is for students to understand how statistics can be used to answer social science questions. Students, drawing from publicly available social science data, will learn how to formulate social science research questions and hypotheses, choose the appropriate statistical analyses, conduct the analyses using statistical software and interpret their findings. The course will also challenge students to explore the appropriateness of data for shaping social policies, as well as how data can be used to reinforce structures of inequality.
3 credits
Pre-requisite: MATH 109
SIX additional courses in sociology or other approved courses
Recent internship sites include the Department of Education, National Geographic Magazine, the National Museum of American History, the American Sociological Association, The Family Place and the Children’s Defense Fund.
Dr. E. Wairimu Mwangi, Assistant Professor of Sociology (program chair);
Dr. Hans Momplaisir, Assistant Professor of Sociology;
Sr. Mary Johnson, SND, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Religious Studies;
Dr. Konia Kollehlon, Associate Professor of Sociology;
Dr. Roberta Goldberg, Professor of Sociology;
Dr. Roxana Moayedi, Professor of Sociology;
